Thanksgiving sail with the So. Cal Potters 11/24/12

I met up with the Southern California Potters Saturday for a sail in Mission Bay, San Diego. The "Potters" are a loose association of sailors with predominantly West Wright Potter sail boats. Both 15 and 19 foot models. Here is a link to their web site http://howies.net/socalpotter. I had a fun time sailing in Sail Bay. Sailed 12 miles in the Bay and top speed of 7.4 knots. The wind was brisk, steady at 10 mph with gusts 20+ mph. My neighbor Brad joined me for the sail. I did not use ballast and was at the limit of my comfort a few times when the gusts were strong. I learned to be adept at spilling the wind from the main. Had consistent 6 knots + speed for quite a while and it was great fun? Heeled over and the boat demonstrated great acceleration with each wind gust that was exhilarating. We droppoed the main with the wind really gusting and sailed for a while on just the jib and mizzen. Was fun and had a consistent speed of 5+ knots with just the jib and mizzen. Fog started to roll in around 4pm so we returned to San Juan cove to put the boat on the trailer. I dragged the rudder on the ramp and scratch off a little of its surface. I will post on the Swallow Boats forum to see if anyone has a good way to add the surface back and fix it. Just minor and more cosmetic. Really just a bruised ego that I did not judge the depth of the water well and pull up the rudder. We had dinner with the "Potters" in the Mission Bay Yacht Club. Nice group of people and good food also. Enjoyable time and I plan on meeting up with them again.

November 16th, 2012 sail

Sail out of Oceanside. Light winds today. Beautiful weather for a lazy day out on the water. Put all the sails up prior to pushing off and took a few pictures. First photo’s of all the sails up.

Got a video of a couple of Dolphins swimming bye. That was cool. I played with the dodger a little. I decided that I will take it off the boat for normal use and put it back on when I think I will need it.

I also played with a rope around the tiller to give me some time up front under the dodger. It worked well in the light winds. Not sure how it would do with any consistent winds though. It gave me a few ideas on how I can rig a tiller clutch up though. Will need some bungee cord for that.

Can you believe it is November with weather like this? Got to love Southern California.

Cold and Raining

Supposed to go out sailing today. But the weather is not cooperating. Small boat warnings etc. Ho well. Maybe tomorrow? If not then, it will have to be next week. Noaa warnings: Warnings & Follow-Up Statements Gale Warning (issued at 11:15am) Gale Warning (#0020 issued at 11:04am) Gale Warning (#0004 issued at 11:04am) COASTAL WATERS FROM SAN MATEO POINT TO THE MEXICAN BORDER AND OUT 30 NM- 1115 AM PST FRI NOV 9 2012 ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR WINDS IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... ...GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON... .TODAY...WIND W 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 4 FT. MIXED SWELL W 2 TO 5 FT AT 10 SECONDS AND S 3 FT AT 17 SECONDS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

No wind?

Well no wind this morning with off shore ships reporting 1 knot at 10.30 this morning. Decided to not go out today. Well winds picked up late 3.30pm. Off shore at 10 knots. Oh well. Next weekend.